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Wednesday, September 02, 2015

Today In Stoopid: Pete Sessions and Roger Hunt

Wow, there’s something in the GOP water that spurs on lunacy and wild conspiracy theories … like the one recently put forward by Texas — yeah, I know … crazy — Republican — yeah, I know … crazier — Congressman Pete Sessions who claims that the Boy Scouts of America’s [BSA} recent decision to allow openly gay troop leaders is the result of anti-discrimination laws that are “designed” to take down the organization.

Yes, we fought against discrimination in the BSA so we could take down the BSA, y’all; we’re that powerful.

In a recent interview, Sessions said he disagreed with the BSA decision and that, as a former Eagle Scout who is “deeply involved” with the scout5s, claims, without one stitch of proof mind, because there isn’t any, not that that matters to a republican from Texas, that the decision was prompted by “outside factors” that are “trying to literally ruin the Boy Scouts of America over something they don’t understand.”

The Gays did it to ruin scouting, not, you know, to be able to be who they are and be a scout. But then Sessions dives deeper into the GOP Crazy Pond and says that all anti-discrimination laws — and I’m assuming he means just the ones that apply to The Gays — are designed to take down the scouts.

Of course, because he’s a loon, Sessions has no response to the fact that not one single anti-discrimination law prompted the BSA to make this historic change, nor can he explain why, if some states began implementing non-discrimination laws back in the 1990s it took the BSA twenty-five years to make the change.

In fact, back in 2000, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the BSA was “allowed” to discriminate against openly gay troop leaders since the BSA was a private organization and therefore could make its own membership rules.

So, Congressman Sessions, take off the Tin Foil hat and listen up: the BSA policy shift came about because a great many sponsors of the group threatened to end their funding over the anti-gay policies of the Boy Scouts and had nothing whatsoever to do with any law.

Now, Congressman, sit down, sip some Sweet Tea and keep quiet until the Mother Planet calls you home ….

And maybe you can swap stories with South Dakota Republican legislator Roger Hunt who has proposed legislation in that state that would require physical examination of a transgender athletes genitals before they be allowed to compete in high school sports.

Uh huh.

Hunt — who has clearly never had an education beyond the sixth grade, nor read anything on gender and gender identity and transgender studies — says that gender begins at conception and so only birth certificates and visual inspections should be used to determine a student’s gender identity.

And so Roger Hunt — who doesn’t want South Dakota to succumb to what he dubs “East [and]West Coast culture” — drafted his idiotic and offensive legislation in response to the South Dakota High School Activities Association’s [SDHSAA]rational decision to make its policies inclusive to trans athletes last year.

The current policy allows for parents to notify the school of their child’s gender identity if it differs from what is listed on the child’s birth certificate or school registration records and it allows for written verification from a health care professional to attest to the child’s consistent gender identification and expression. Once a decision is made based on the available records and statements, trans students can participate in sports according to their gender identity for the rest of their high school career. The policy also provides guidance for correct pronoun use and access to locker rooms and bathrooms.

Rational, like I said.

Of course, being a Republican and being from South Dakota, Hunt isn’t the first legislator to act the fool. Another Republican state legislator, Jim Bolin, said the SDHSAA “decided to essentially question the validity of birth documents in the state of South Dakota,” and introduced a bill that would make the policy void. It also required that sexual identity would only be determined by birth certificates.

Again, because he’s never educated himself on gender issues.

South Dakota legislators tried twice to overturn the policy — it passed the House, but failed in the Senate — and the SDHSAA says they will take another look at the policy during a meeting next week, and so some in the statehouse want to wait and see what happens there before trying, again, to push through Hunt’s offensive legislation.

Luckily, though, Hunt’s proposal might be against federal law, which says that trans students are protected by Title IX in single-sex extracurricular activities, so maybe this kind of hateful, and backwards, and backwoods, legislation may never pass at all.

Let’s hope so … and let’s hope that these two lunatics are voted out of office in their respective states as soon as possible.

5 comments:

With every election I am sure that THIS election will be the one to hoist those tea baggers out of office heralding the beginning of the end of the tea partier folks. And after the confetti settles, the same old hate filled heartless, racist bigots are back in their seats.

I have zero hope of the American voters to either get their asses to the voting booth, or to vote responsibly.

I wonder if these haters all have penises less than 1/2 inch long; that's the only reason I can think of that they want to inspect other people's genitals or rule what they do or do not do with their bodies. They are so embarrassed by the own bodies they want to embarrass others in turn, no matter how upsetting that may be.